It has long been known to identify the passenger seats in a passenger cabin of an aircraft with seat identifying indicia, such as a seat row number and a seat letter, whereby these numbers and letters are arranged consecutively in a regular pattern along the rows of passenger seats. Nonetheless, it is often difficult for passengers to find their assigned seats, by matching the seat identifying indicia provided on their passenger tickets with corresponding indicia provided on the seats and/or other locations in the passenger cabin. This is especially true in wide body aircraft or other high-capacity aircraft having rather large passenger cabins. The seat identifying indicia provided on the seats or at other locations in the cabin, e.g. on the overhead baggage compartments or on the passenger service units above the respective seats, are often not easily visible or findable by the passengers during boarding, especially for passengers who are not familiar with the seat numbering system in general or in a particular aircraft type. As a result, the passengers suffer an inconvenience. Also a substantial loss of time or delay arises during the boarding and seating of the passengers in the aircraft.
To facilitate the boarding process and assist passengers in finding their seats, U.S. Pat. No. 6,578,795 (Romca et al.) discloses an arrangement of seat row indicators and seat location indicators (e.g. bearing row numbers and seat letters) provided on passenger seats in an aircraft cabin, wherein the seat row and location indicators may be illuminated. The row and location indicators of seats in an individual emergency exit row can be illuminated with a color different from the row and location indicators of seats that are not in an emergency exit row, in order to help locate and identify the emergency exit in the event of an emergency requiring evacuation of the aircraft.